With the Bengals officially requesting the Hamilton County tax payers for a new scoreboard for Paul Brown Stadium, it got me thinking that if the Bengals can have these huge video boards replaced with a snap of Mike Brown’s fingers, what’s holding Elder back from replacing the increasingly small and outdated scoreboard in The Pit?

The scoreboard was originally installed back in 1998. Later we got the message boards from Wright State. Clearly it has become outdated in comparison to scoreboards at LaSalle and St. X. Granted that while The Pit may be older and harder to find space for a new board, I think it would be a worthwhile project that would attract more attention to The Pit and make it a better experience from everyone at the game on Friday night.

I went out and spoke to Mr. Dave Dabbelt, our Athletic director, and asked about whether a new scoreboard is something that has been discussed in the past, and if we could see it happen in the next 10-20 years,

“Well it’s something we’ve been talking about the last few years. Unfortunately the costs are very prohibiting. They are somewhere between $18,000 and $20,000. Is that money we can raise? How many times would we use it for football or lacrosse? The main reason is cost. I could certainly see it happening in the next 10-20 years. Prices have actually gone down recently.”

I decided that the best opinions on the scoreboard would be from the ones that put the points on it. So I went out and hit up a few football and lacrosse players to get their views on the possible scoreboard replacement.

Senior Tim Wahoff told me that he likes the current scoreboard and hope no changes are coming soon,

“Sure a new scoreboard would be nice, but I like the one we have now. There aren’t too many problems that I see with it, said Wahoff. “It has a classic look to it that goes great with our school and is part of the tradition.”

My brother-in-law, former Elder football player Nick Zieleniewski, class of ’01, told me that he would be in favor of upgrading the scoreboard,

“I think it would be a great idea. It needs a bit of an upgrade. It would make it better for the fans.”

My other brother-in-law, former Elder football player Andrew Curtis, class of ’05, gave me some wise words on the idea,

“I don’t think they really need one at the moment. I don’t think any high schools have a scoreboard with instant replay etc. It would take a lot of money that could go elsewhere.”

Junior lax bro Drew Lammers voted in favor of keeping the current board.

“I like it. Maybe if I saw a new design of it I would want to change it. It is fine as it is.”

Another lacrosse player, junior Gage Brock felt that some changes were necessary

“A new scoreboard might be cool, depending on the design, and we definitely need to fix the advertisements on the bottom though, “ said Brock. “And for sure replace the lights on the scoreboard.”

When I asked junior lax bro Josh Bonavita what he thought about the scoreboard, he gave me a totally different view,

“Instead of updating the scoreboard that is there now, I think that adding another scoreboard at the other end zone would better.”

While I think that it would be useful if getting a new scoreboard was possible, I agree with Mr. Dabbelt and my brother Andrew, in that if a new scoreboard is not in the budget, then it shouldn’t be a high priority, especially in comparison with more important issues like financial aid, academics, etc.

But with the Bengals getting new video boards in the near future, who knows? Maybe if we give Mike Brown a heart and brain (and a little bit of courage) for Christmas he’ll be generous enough to give us Paul Brown Stadium’s old boards.